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Bill Richardson, former Governor, US Ambassador to the UN and backchannel freelance diplomat extraordinaire, was planning his 8th trip to Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea. He invited my father Eric, who invited me.

Two sets of goals for the trip: political (Richardson's side) and technological (our side). Speaking as a tech person, just getting to speak to officials in the most closed country on earth about the virtues of the Internet--and having them (appear to) listen--seemed extraordinary.

It was a nine-person delegation in total. We left our phones and laptops behind in China, since we were warned they'd be confiscated in NK, and probably infected with lord knows what malware.

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

My gut says very little. It doesn't produce any material goods, nor does it produce information that people find "enjoyable" (like the media or newspapers), but rather sells the ambiguous idea of making money "bigger".

It does have a role in making money efficient, but my gut would tell me that if the economy is running efficiently it's proportion would be quite small, as it's more efficient to have money in actually producing goods, then in "lending" to produce goods.

Likewise, we have much of the world's top talent which in essence "produces nothing". Instead of building the next great car, they're trading obscure financial instruments. Too many managers, too few producers.

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is not the right leader for the world's largest software company but holds his grip on it by systematically forcing out any rising manager who challenges his authority, claims a former senior executive who has written a book about his time at the company.

"For Microsoft to really get back in the game seriously, you need a big change in management," said Joachim Kempin, who worked at Microsoft between 1983 and 2002, overseeing the sales of Windows software to computer makers for part of that time. "As much as I respect Steve Ballmer, he may be part of that in the end."

As a senior vice president in charge of a crucial part of the company's business with direct access to co-founder Bill Gates, Kempin is the most senior former Microsoft executive to write a book critical of the company, which is famous for the loyalty of its ex-employees.

His criticism echoes that of investor David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, who called for Ballmer to step down in 2011.

Kempin left Microsoft under a cloud in 2002 as some of the aggressive contracts he crafted with PC makers were seen as fodder for the U.S. government's antitrust prosecution of the company, which started in 1998 and was largely resolved by 2002.

His book, titled 'Resolve and Fortitude: Microsoft's "secret power broker" breaks his silence', is scheduled to be published on Tuesday. He talked with Reuters by phone on Monday.

DEFEND THE THRONE

Kempin charges Ballmer with purposefully ousting any executives with potential to wrest him from the CEO seat, which he has occupied since 2000.

He said he saw the process first with Richard Belluzzo, a former Hewlett-Packard executive credited with launching the Xbox game console who rose to chief operating officer at Microsoft but left after only 14 months in the post, in the same year Kempin left.

"He (Belluzzo) had no room to breathe on the top. When you work that directly with Ballmer and Ballmer believes 'maybe this guy could someday take over from me', my God, you will have less air to breathe, that's what it comes down to."

Several leading executives, touted by outsiders at one time or another as potential successors to Ballmer, have left the company in the last few years, most recently Windows unit chief Steven Sinofsky, who departed in November.

Before Sinofsky, Windows and online head Kevin Johnson went to run Juniper Networks Inc, Office chief Stephen Elop went to lead phone maker Nokia Oyj, while Ray Ozzie, the software guru Gates designated as Microsoft's big-picture thinker, left to start his own project.

"Ozzie is a great software guy, he knew what he was doing. But when you see Steve (Ballmer) and him on stage where he (Ozzie) opposed Steve, it was Steve's way or the highway," said Kempin.

Kempin said he spoke to Ballmer around two years ago and expressed his concerns about his management style and direction of the company, but has seen no changes since. He said he sent Ballmer and Gates copies of his new book but has yet to get a reply.

"Steve is a very good business guy, but make him a chief operating officer, not a CEO, and your business is going to go gangbusters," said Kempin. "I respect that guy (Ballmer), but there are some limitations in what he can and can't do and maybe he hasn't realized them himself."

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

In his book, Kempin writes about how Microsoft foresaw the major moves in technology in the last decade, but bungled its entry into tablets, phones and social media, ceding leadership in the technology world to Apple Inc and others.

"They missed all the opportunities they were talking about when I was still in the company. Tablets, phones...we had a tablet going, we had tablet software when Windows XP came out, it was never followed up properly," said Kempin.

He also claims the decline of PCs is partly due to Microsoft's mismanagement of hardware makers, an area that Kempin oversaw at Microsoft.

"Just think about the insult of Microsoft coming out with a tablet themselves, trying to mimic Apple, and now they are going to come out with a notebook on top of it," said Kempin, referring to Microsoft's Surface RT tablet and soon-to-be-released Surface running Windows Pro.

Several PC makers went public with their unease about Microsoft's decision to make its own computers last year.

Kempin reserves his most pointed criticism for Ballmer.

"Is he a great CEO? I don't think so. Microsoft's board is a lame duck board, has been forever. They hire people to help them administer the company, but not to lead the company. That's the problem," said Kempin.

"They need somebody maybe 35-40 years old, a younger person who understands the Facebook Inc generation and this mobile community. They don't need this guy on stage with this fierce, aggressive look, announcing the next version of Windows and thinking he can score with that."

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When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

A member of Japan’s coalition government arrived in Beijing on Tuesday carrying a letter for the head of the Communist Party, Xi Jinping, from the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to try to help calm the escalating dispute between the two countries over contested islands in the East China Sea, Japanese officials said.

Separately, the Philippines announced Tuesday that it would formally challenge China’s claims in the South China Sea before a United Nations tribunal that oversees the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Filipino action appears largely symbolic since China would have to agree to submit to the tribunal as arbitrator. They have no intention of doing so. I haven't paid attention to the situation at Scarborough recently, but the Chinese have been quite aggressively defending their claim. They have erected a fence across the main lagoon to keep out Filipino fishermen and continue to patrol in the area after withdrawing briefly in response to a US-led effort for both sides to stand down last year.

The Abe government sent Yamaguchi Natsuo as the bearer of the letter. He belongs to the New Komeito Party, a coalition member described by Perlez as less hawkish than Abe and his LDP colleagues. We do not yet know whether any Chinese officials will meet with him in person.

A less optimistic take on this event is that Abe is expecting his overture to be rejected providing further justification for the hawks in his Government to escalate matters.

" Hundreds of Chinese factory workers angry about strictly timed bathroom breaks and fines for starting work late held their Japanese and Chinese managers hostage for a day and a half before police broke up the strike."

Looking at the recent comments from a PLA colonel, Japan should better tell Beijing to go and eat shit. There's no way anyone would negotiate with such idiots running free spouting phrases worthy of Hitler's classics.

Looking at the recent comments from a PLA colonel, Japan should better tell Beijing to go and eat shit. There's no way anyone would negotiate with such idiots running free spouting phrases worthy of Hitler's classics.

But the results, if early exit polls are to be believed, mean that Netanyahu is no longer King of Israel. He lost votes to his right, to the pro-settlement Jewish Home party of Naftali Bennett, and he lost centrist voters (those who wish for, among other things, a two-state solution with the Palestinians, without quite believing it is possible) to the Yesh Atid party of the former television broadcaster Yair Lapid, who is the real story of this campaign.

Those old fogies? They are supposed to be dead! The new generation of Japanese were Reagan's best buddies.

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu, of the National Defence University, blamed America’s ‘‘orchestration’’ and Japan’s ‘‘militarism’’ for rising tensions over disputed islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

Colonel Liu Mingfu asked that his views be conveyed directly to Julia Gillard.

‘‘America is the global tiger and Japan is Asia’s wolf and both are now madly biting China,’’ Colonel Liu said. ‘‘Of all the animals, Chinese people hate the wolf the most.’’

China was a peaceful nation but it would fight to the death if seriously attacked, he said.

Both sides and the US have in recent days traded strident warnings over alleged territorial incursions, while holding out hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough. Diplomats privately warn of a growing risk of accident or miscalculation.

Asked about the People’s Liberation Army fighting capability, Colonel Liu referred to the PLA department that houses China’s strategic missile and nuclear arsenal. He raised a hypothetical scenario that he said would justify a nuclear attack, while clarifying that he was not calling upon China to take such measures.

‘‘If this Japanese wolf again attacks America’s Pearl Harbour or Australia’s Darwin, how do you know it wouldn’t receive another nuclear bomb?’’ Colonel Liu said. ‘‘The world would hail if Japan receives such a blow.

‘‘I don’t want to mention China here, as it is sensitive,’’ he added.

Colonel Liu is one of a group of outspoken hawkish PLA officers who do not claim to speak on behalf of the leadership but are given licence to speak stridently on some issues at certain times.

Foreign diplomats say they can serve to provide unofficial warnings, test foreign reactions and rally nationalistic support for the Communist Party or sections of it.
They can also complicate China’s diplomatic objectives and place leaders under pressure to demonstrate their nationalistic credentials.

Colonel Liu directly warned Australia not to follow the US or Japan into any military conflict with China. He said Australia should play the role of a ‘‘kind-hearted lamb’’ and China would discourage it from being led astray.

‘‘Australia should never play the jackal for the tiger or dance with the wolf,’’ he said. Colonel Liu asked that his message be conveyed directly to the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, as she prepares to deliver a major speech on national security.

Like her predecessors, Ms Gillard has maintained that Australia will not have to choose between its economic and security interests.

‘‘American hegemony is not at its dawn and not at its zenith,’’ Colonel Liu said. ‘‘It is at its sunset and night is coming.’’

A consultant to the US Pentagon and author of The Rise of China Versus The Logic of Containment, Edward Luttwak, said China was ‘‘grossly overestimating’’ its military capability and underestimating the regional response.

He said deep geopolitical forces were at work that could be managed but not reversed. ‘‘Militant nationalism is the only possible substitute for ex-communists who seek to retain power,’’ Mr Luttwak said.

‘‘And for the US, its entire political culture mandates the containment of China’s new territorial revisionism.’’

Colonel Liu and other military figures have been buoyed by the ascension of the new Communist Party and PLA boss, Xi Jinping. One of Mr Xi’s new political mottoes, the ‘‘China Dream’’, echoes the title of a best-selling book by Colonel Liu, which has had sales restrictions removed since Mr Xi’s arrival.

Colonel Liu said his views did not represent Chinese government policy, but were consistent with what mainstream political and military leaders think, if not what they say.

In separate written comments he said the US was building ‘‘a mini-NATO’’ to contain China, with the US and Japan at its core and Australia within its orbit.

With such comments towards the US, Japan and Australia (WTF? ), I sometimes wonder whether or not USMC General Mattis or Army Lieutenant-General Dempsey would speak out their 2 cents about this officer's comments by using some colored analogy as well. I don't think Mattis nor Dempsey would, but I would be the first to enjoy it if their 2 cents are made of harsh words spoken in a reception at West Point, Annapolis or anything else organized by the US Armed Forces.

Just reading the reaction from Beijing after Hillary Clinton's comments a few days ago was already funny. I can only picture what it would look like if Mattis or Dempsey replied with good old-fashioned slangs... comedy gold.

With such comments towards the US, Japan and Australia (WTF? ), I sometimes wonder whether or not USMC General Mattis or Army Lieutenant-General Dempsey would speak out their 2 cents about this officer's comments by using some colored analogy as well. I don't think Mattis nor Dempsey would, but I would be the first to enjoy it if their 2 cents are made of harsh words spoken.

Why sink down to their level? Those who barks loudest tend to have the least bite.

I thought the Japanese abandoned militaristic policies after US nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

It is either this old man has yet to move on with the times, or maybe people will abandon the thought of a military offense only after being a victim of 2 nukes unleashing an unstoppable wave of death.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

Same thing.

(BURN. Of course Reagan wasn't anywhere near being Hitler.)

I would say he is the complete opposite, being a puppet of Wall Street & Bankster Inc. If I am not wrong, Hitler hated the bankers as much as he hated the Jews - maybe he is the one who popularised such a ridiculous association.

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

I would say he is the complete opposite, being a puppet of Wall Street & Bankster Inc. If I am not wrong, Hitler hated the bankers as much as he hated the Jews - maybe he is the one who popularised such a ridiculous association.

That association (between Jews and Banking) has existed since the Middle Ages, and to be fair you have financial companies with names like Goldman Sachs or Lehman Brothers, so the association is not entirely inaccurate, even today. That said, I don't think Hitler was too against non-Jewish bankers.

I was mostly taking the opportunity to make a cheap joke (and I meant it to be more about the Japanese then about Reagan/Hitler, in that the Japanese association with Hitler was more to counter the Soviets then an endorsement of his policies, and you could say the same about Reagan. Also. in terms of ideology, the only thing the Japanese had in common with Hitler was ultra-Nationalism, and you could say the same nationalistic attitudes were compatible with Reagan too.)